


Breathe

by JForward



Series: A universe that doesn't care (and people that do) [3]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst, Drowning, Gen, Hurt, Hurt/Comfort, Mouth-to-Mouth, Ryan saves the day!, Whump, suffocation, well sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-17
Updated: 2020-05-06
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:42:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 14,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23691787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JForward/pseuds/JForward
Summary: Water.She was in the water.Oh... that was why there was no air.The Scottish moors in the eighteen hundreds. Last place you expect an alien invasion, really.But all is not as it seems as the Doctor struggles to save a terrified race before her own body shuts down for good.Complete!
Series: A universe that doesn't care (and people that do) [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1722211
Comments: 47
Kudos: 99





	1. Chapter 1

  
The first thing that really sunk in was how very cold it felt. A tingling that was running from fingertip to elbow, sending blasts of cold through veins, flooding into the rest of her body and chilling it further. Why was she so cold? She tried to gasp, to pull air into lungs and warm blood but - it didn't work. Again. No. Colder. Colder, and there was no oxygen, respiratory bypass system working hard but there was only so much it could do before air would be necessary and so why, why wasn't there air? The cold reached her shoulders and the Doctor realised.

 _I really should take a look at what's going on, shouldn't I?_ which was when it finally clicked that her eyes were shut. Oh! _That_ was why she couldn't see. Didn't explain the cold though. She forced her lids to open, taking a little longer than they should. That cold must be getting into her body, slowing everything down, which wasn't a feeling she was particularly pleased with. But they did open, as she tried to breathe again, and became aware it wasn't just a _lack_ of oxygen - something else was flooding in. 

Water.  
She was in the water.  
Oh... that was why there was no air.

Her eyes opened a little water, feeling the sting as she looked up, through a cloud of blonde - her own hair, swirling around her face. But there it was, on the surface - chunks floating. They all swayed, moving in one direction, the light filtering down a strange blue-grey irridescence. It was pretty, actually. And the sweetness on her lips, the cracking above - _frozen lake. Sweet water_. So she wasn't in the sea! That was an advantage.  
The pain in her chest was getting more and more pressing, and whilst the Doctor wanted to tell it, _Okay, wait a minute, give me a moment, dealing with something here_! she couldn't actually open her mouth in order to tell her annoying lungs about that, so she would have to pay attention to their very annoying pleas.

The ones for oxygen.  
Right! Yes. That was important. Her brain was rambling but right now it should be focused on saving her, which absolutely wasn't ideal. That cold was getting worse, and when she moved her arms, it was only the motion through the water that convinced her they were actually moving. Another attempt at breath sent an actual bolt of panic into her brain, because now it was _really, really_ hurting and she had to get to the surface. Kick your legs, Doctor! Good idea, Doctor. Don't get stuck in your head! Alright, Doctor, thank you, Doctor -

Her legs weren't moving.   
Jolting, she peered down - no, nothing wrapped around them. She was still sinking, mud coming closer. And the cold had numbed her all the way to her hips, and despite every order her very good brain was sending to her normally ever-so-reliable legs wasn't working! And despite that, they were absolutely letting her down right now. Betrayed! She would've gasped in horror, but unfortunately, that previously-noted lack of air in her lungs was making it hard to gasp, too.

Her eyes went back up to the great sheets of ice moving above her. They were shifting violently, as if something had bothered them, but she couldn't feel a disturbance in the water. That was weird, she thought for a breath - well, not really a breath, because she couldn't breathe, obviously - but then it occurred to her that it was because her whole body had gone numb. She was sending move signals and looking down took quite a long time but she could see her coat billowing, too - so the water was moving. And it was odd because there was quite a lot of darkness gathering on the edge of her vision, and she was sure there was a dark shape moving towards her now, and the water didn't look murky any more. It looked quite beautiful.

That thought occupied her mind when she foggily noticed the shape was approaching her through the water. They weren't graceful, but they were moving to her in a way that said it was her perception of time that was slowing rather than their movements being graceful. And then she felt, actually felt, a blunt impact around her chest. She would've gone oof, but that seemed a bit beyond her, because everything was getting foggier and that lack of air was rather important, now wasn't it?

She didn't feel the air touching her face. She didn't feel the mud and the hard ground behind her, but she was suddenly aware that she wasn't weightless any more. She was aware of slumping, and the sudden, blinding brightness, eyes stinging again. There was a face above her, shining wet, breathing hard; dark skin and bright eyes. And then suddenly two more faces, and words - but they were refusing to get through her ears, feeling like the ice had crackled and swelled them shut. So now she was in the open and she should be able to breathe, only - she was trying to. She was starting to feel it now, her chest was moving but there was no air coming in -

" _She's breathed in the water!_ " that whole 'ears not working' thing was starting to get better, but she couldn't quite tell who had said that. Hands gripped at nothing, back spasming, and the darkness was getting worse, whilst her respiratory bypass system definitely tried to get on, but air wouldn't go into lungs full of water -   
_"How do we help her? She can't breathe -"_  
A young woman was crouching in front of her, and the touch on icy skin was hot enough to make her scream, but all that came out was a gurgle. " _Doctor_ -"  
_"Gotta get air in her lungs, right?"_  
" _Yeah_." that was the woman, and everything was going grey.  
" _Do CPR!"_ Graham. That was his name, wasn't it? Gray-ham. Ha, sounded gross. She'd try it, though - 

Lips sealed over hers and suddenly air was moving and the water gurgled. Eyes opened just a little and the Doctor rolled, Yaz - that was her name! - darting out of the way as hands - hot, burning, _painful_ but at least not numb on her back - propped her up.  
She started to cough, taking that tiny bit of air, retching, gasping. Water began to flood out, heaving, pouring down onto the mud as the kids scrambled back. There was more heat on her back, as her body ached and throbbed, water leaving through both nostrils and her mouth. It hurt like _hell_ but hurting was better than being numb.

"Hey, fam." her voice came out a lot harsher than expected, and she gave a last cough as she tried to sit up. Hands landed on her shoulders, keeping her pinned down to the mud.  
"Don't move, Doc." Graham said quietly, "Take it slow, give it a second."   
"You were under the water for a really long time, Doctor." Yaz said, gently, taking the Doctor's hand and rubbing it gently. She didn't have the heart to tell Yaz that it hurt.   
"I saved you. Me!" Ryan. She looked up to him, feeling how her hair stuck uncomfortably to her face. "I dived in after you." she noticed that, for all his cockiness, he was shivering too, t-shirt and jeans sticking.   
"We better get back to the TARDIS." she rasped, "Get you some warm clothes..." she went to push up, and instead of leaping gracefully to her feet, her traitorous legs gave way and pitched her forward.

Yaz, thankfully, was ready; wrapping arms around the Doctor, she tugged the Time Lord to her feet carefully.   
"Take it slow, Doctor." she said, softly, and then glanced away across the water. On the other side, something moved in the fog that seemed to be rising all around them. "I don't think this is over."


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm writing blind, I have no idea what's going to happen, I hope you guys are having fun!  
> I just know ... the Whump Is Coming.

  
"Okay, yeah, that's very not ideal." The Doctor's memories were coming back to her. She could feel it now, that fogginess was leaving as the numbness fled from her skin and she those traitorous legs of hers were actually starting to work. That was good, only the problem with the numbness wearing off was that she was being very aware of just how much pain her body was in. Still! Been through worse. Been through a lot worse, actually, she thought to herself, gotta focus on the good.

Like the fact that her legs were holding her, although that might have been a touch to do with the hot hand belonging to Yaz. It gripped around her narrow back, helping keep her straight. And now she was looking across the water, the mist was clearing, and the - rather large - group was staring at them.   
"How did you get across?" she asked, turning her head to look at the fam.   
"Is this the time?" Yaz answered.  
"Fair point. Run!" she turned, tugging Yaz with her, and - bloody legs! They still were refusing to work properly, but then there was an arm around her left - and a second hand around her right, Graham supporting her, slowing themselves down to keep her moving. Aw. She'd have to deal with the warm fuzzies at a later date, though.

The splashing of the water behind them caused her to glance over her shoulder. Oh. They were marching into the water, not caring, standing tall and stiff, moving aside the ice.   
"Wish I could do that." she commented, as the fam kept tugging her on. Her head kept trying to turn back, and whilst her legs were slowly getting the movement back into them, that numbness in her hands was pervading. Her lungs ached, although they were gratefully drawing in the air as they powered on. She'd seen maybe ten of their enemies in pursuit, most of them hidden in what looked like long dark robes. Graham had commented it was all a bit Harry Potter, of course, until everything had started going terribly wrong.

Her head kept fizzing and sparking, the greying had gone but there was still worse in there. The pain, a low, steady headache that had haunted her since she'd left the Matrix chamber. It felt so long ago, now, including her escape from Stormcage - but it wasn't, really. A year, year and a half. And every day, every minute, every moment was accompanied by the throbbing. It sat in the back of her head, behind her left eye. Any attempt at rest was accompanied by it - that feeling of something deep inside her mind breaking. Corrupting. Memories bleeding away from her, things she should remember, gone. And trying to summon them up was getting harder, like clawing through molasses. 

"Doctor?" Yaz's voice was surprisingly quiet and close to her ear and she realised that running on autopilot wasn't really helping very much. And the grip around her was getting tighter, which was weird, and her body was - oh. Oh, she was shaking. Right, that wasn't something she was used to. Time Lords - and whatever she was - they ran pretty cool. Half the temperature of humans, in fact, so she did wonder just how cold she had gotten to be shaking this badly - but Ryan, who was actually leading the headlong charge for once, and that was cause for concern. Ryan! Outrunning her! Honestly, an insult.

"We have to keep moving!" she shouted, and her throat ached at the stress on it, but Graham gave her a disparaging look. "What?"  
"We're tryin', Doc, but if you ain't noticed, it ain't us that's slowing down."  
"Graham!" Yaz hissed at him, giving a look that would eviscerate, if it could.  
"It's true!" and the Doctor glanced over her shoulders again, towards the oncoming row of monklike black robes, now out of the water. The Doctor looked up again, through the fog, legs still moving... but Graham was right.

"You have a point."   
"Doctor -"  
"No, Yaz, it's fine." she stumbled, then shook her arms hard, "Run. Run ahead, get to the TARDIS, get safe!" she said, and now the shaking was clearer, her hands trembling badly. "Please, fam. Listen to me!" she shoved them, and Ryan had come to a stop, hopping foot to foot and catching his breath. "You have to get to the TARDIS, shelter in place, nothing can possibly hurt you in there. I'll be back soon. I promise." she whispered, and shoved Graham. He and Ryan took off again, as she started jogging, but it was more difficult now - Yaz hesitated again.   
"I'm not asking." the Doctor said, pointedly, and finally she turned and ran.

The Doctor came to a full stop, doubling over, wrapping an arm around her chest. She coughed again, spitting a mouthful of bile and water aside, digging inside her coat pocket. Saturated fabric stuck to her unpleasantly but more worrying was the line now only a dozen feet away. Cold fingers struck colder metal, and whilst her hands were struggling to close, she pulled out the sonic and pointed it at them. Pressing the button - nothing happened. No light, no rotation, no whir.  
"Oh, come on! Not now!" she shook it, and it slid through her fingers into the mud. Falling to her knees, the Doctor looked up, scrabbling for it - wrapping fingertips around it again and looking up as the cloaked figures were less than a foot away -

At the door to the TARDIS, at the edge of a sparse and half-dead woodland, Yaz hesitated and turned back - the last thing she saw before the fog wrapped around them was the Doctor on her knees, looking up at the enroaching army, clutching her sonic like a wand.

Then the door slammed shut.

"We can't leave her there!" Yaz shouted, looking around at Graham and Ryan, both of whom were looking uncertain. "She's in danger, we don't know what those - those monk guys are gonna do with her!"  
Ryan was shivering badly, the icy water having gotten to him.   
"I know." Graham said, "I know, Yaz, but she wanted us to stay here." he didn't sound certain either, honestly. "Ryan, you need to get into new clothes before you catch a chill, you should -"  
Ryan hesitated. "I won't be a second." he agreed, slipping away into the TARDIS, Yaz able to hear his feet vanishing towards his room.  
She turned to throw the door open but there was a rumble and the TARDIS lurched sideways. 

"What's happening!?" Graham had grabbed onto a pillar to stabilize himself. But there was a familiar croaking, wheezing noise from the console - as he looked around a lever threw itself. Yaz was trying to open the doors but it was no good - they weren't moving. The TARDIS threw them all sideways as she dematerialised, leaving the Doctor behind.


	3. Chapter 3

  
Eyes flickered up from the mud as the Doctor held her sonic straight up in the air. She knew what she was doing, of course she did, even if every part of her was shaking - really annoying, when your limbs suddenly decide they don't want to do what they're told!   
"Sorry, Fam. Can't risk it." she whispered, pressing on the button. The whirring filled the air as the cloaked people formed a ring around her, and then - she shut her eyes for just a breath as she heard the TARDIS leaving. "Awfully loyal, my ghost monument." she whispered.

Now just to get out of the mud and face them. Which turned out to be not too hard, even if it was just because hands pulled her up by the shoulders.  
"Ow! Hey! Hands off the goods!" she complained, set on her trembling legs. She shoved the sonic inside her soaked coat pocket, glaring at the apparent leader as they stepped forward.  
"If you're goin' for a dramatic reveal, can you get on with it? Muddy fields are really nasty normally, let alone when you just had an impromptu ice bath." she said, glaring.

Hands tightened on her shoulders, and the Doctor let her eyes flicker for a moment, seeing rather sharp and green claws digging into the fabric. Ooh. Very not human, but not something she was actually aware of.  
"Come on! Get on with it! I'm cold." she pointed out, folding her arms. Immediately regretting it as they squelched wetly, but she kept up the position. Intimidation stance! Didn't seem to work quite so well as it had when she was a man, but regardless, she was going to try. Never know when something's going to work!

There was a low clicking in the back of her ear, a frisson moving between them. She let her eyes flicker around, counting at least seven, plus the two that were holding her ... their robes were soaked through like her own clothes, but they really didn't seem bothered by the cold. Oh! That was right! They'd broken the ice. The Doctor had sent the fam running across ahead of her, after the sonic had confirmed the ice could take their weight; Yaz first, as the lightest, then Graham, then Ryan, then her. Only she'd decided to weaken the ice when Ryan was safe, which, in hindsight, should've done after she'd run across - 

Her head sparked, pain jagged and sharp, digging into her head. For a moment she was grateful for the hands holding her up. "Don't suppose you mind -" she went to dig in her pocket, but the unknown monks moved. They had a spare hand, it seemed, one on her shoulder and the others now clutching each wrist, twisting them behind her back.   
"Ow! I just wanted to grab a sweet! I'm unarmed!" she complained, "If you're gonna be monologuing at me, don't think there's anything wrong with a little sugar to get me through of it."

But there was no response.  
"Of course, I get the silent enemy. You headless under there? Met the headless monks before -" she broke off with a groan, shaking her head, wet strands of hair swinging. "Right. Memories. Bad idea. Gotta remember that." she swallowed hard, and glanced up to find one of them stood right in front of her. Reaching up, they slid back the hood, at long last. And the Doctor felt as the grin spread across her face, taking in the absolutely phenomenal appearance that was in front of her.

The first thought was preying mantis. Insect eyes, large and compound; green-white irridescent 'skin', antennae. Then she saw the features that marked them out as not just flesh, something almost like a low mane that covered their neck and ran down into the collar of the robes. But when she peered a little closer, she could see it wasn't hair as she knew, but more fibrous, and definitely irridescent.   
"You're beautiful." she whispered. "What are you? I mean, you're clearly sentient enough to hide. And how did you end up on a moor in the eighteen hundreds?" she added, raising her eyebrows. "And! Add to that, why did you pull a gun on me and my friends when we accidentally gatecrashed your meeting? We didn't know!" she said, eyebrows raising, the questions bubbling in her.

Thank Rassilon that the questions weren't making her head throb, that had settled back into the standard low ache. It sat just behind her left eye, and without her ginger sweets to dull it, it was becoming more of a problem. Really should get that seen to. And she would! Soon! Just - not yet. Well, definitely not right now because she was being held upright by an unknown species in the eighteen hundreds, but she'd get to it. Eventually.   
Her mind was wandering again, wasn't it?

"You interrupt." the voice that came out was syllibant, accompanied by low clicks and chatters. She frowned, because that - didn't sound natural. Not in the same way. She tilted her head, trying to see -   
"Oh! That's why your mates won't talk to me. Not fancy enough for a conversation box, huh?" she glanced at the creatures holding her, "I'd be offended if I was you, they're not that expensive to make - oh! Unless ..." she peered again. "I get it. You can't get more, can you? You're not meant to be here!"  
"You talk." the head tilted to the side, and the chittering around her rose louder. The TARDIS would be translating for her, if it was closer, and she frowned, searching her mind - ow, ow, ow. Okay. But she knew -

There was another bad spike, and then her wrists were being used to prop her up a little more, the shivering only getting worse. Push that to the top of the list of things to address. Trying to save civilizations with a never-ending headache was one, but this was limiting her ability to talk- 

_A child. Just a child, standing, lost. Scared. She was scared, and lonely, so lonely. She looked up at the rift in the sky, waiting, hoping - someone, anyone. Her robes felt heavy. She wanted to rest. And then there was a noise, so loud, so unnatural - it splintered the sky and made her cover her ears - Rose, laughing - Ace - The Master, so many faces ago, ripping out the inside of the TARDIS -_  
Legs hit mud and her eyes opened, gasping, her chest feeling so tight - what was that? The insectoid face in front of her looked confused.

"What do?" it asked, with apparent difficulty, as she was hoisted up again. There was another frisson of clicks next to her, and some of the words filtered in.   
Contaminated - food supply -   
"I know who you are." she whispered, looking them in the eyes. "Lectraton. That's right, isn't it?" she beamed, "Lectraton! Beautiful place. Bit swampy for my liking, though. But that's - way, way in the future. A good dozen galaxies away, not to mention millenia. How did you end up here? You don't have time travel. You barely have working ships!" she shook her head, as it swung wildly, grey patches flickering over the left side of her vision. Definitely something for concern.

"Not know."  
"Come again?"  
"Not know. How here." her eyes widened just a little as the implications of that sunk in. That couldn't be possible, could it?  
"You don't know how you got here?" she whispered. "But then why the guns? I tell you, I'm really not a big fan of guns!"  
"Fear response."  
"You're scared." she whispered. "Of course you are. This planet is nothing like yours. How many of you were here, when you - arrived? How did you arrive?"  
"Three times."  
"Okay, this two-words thing is getting annoying. Is your communicator bugged?" and she grinned again. "Get it? Bugged? No? Honestly, my wit is wasted."  
"Damaged during." she nodded, and then regretted that. So much regret going on right now!

"So you ended up here, somehow, three times as many - that's a fair amount. I take it they died?" there was a loud chittering from around them.  
"Toxic water."  
"OH! That pond is yours! You're making it suitable for you, of course you are, low-level terraforming so that you can survive. Lectraton. Of course. The materials that you need... oh." she swallowed hard. The ice water that she'd taken a hell of a dunk in. The shivers were getting worse, again, and despite everything the Doctor had no choice but to let them support her.

"Right. Well! This'll teach you to shoot at people." she beamed. "Because I'm the Doctor. I can help get you home. And I can fix your communicator! All I need to do is get you in my TARD-" she broke off, and looked to where the TARDIS had been.  
The TARDIS that she'd sent off, to keep her fam safe.

Whoops.

"Tell you what, let's get that communicator fixed, then you can take me to your lab or - how you got here? Ship? You must have something. Take me to that, and we can get you home. How does that sound?"   
Chattering, again, rising up around her. There was a pause, as if considering, and then they bowed, pulling the hood over their head and hiding the insectile features once more.  
"We go."


	4. Chapter 4

  
"Did the TARDIS take off by itself?" Graham asked, moving over to the console, "What on - " he hung onto the edge, staring at the switches and levers, all whirring and he wondered, as he often did, how the hell she could fly this - and if it was flying itself, just how much work the Doctor actually did. 

"What the hell is goin' on!?" Ryan's voice, as he stumbled in, shirtless, wearing a pair of jeans, clutching a towel and a hoodie in one hand. He grabbed onto the railing to keep himself up as the TARDIS pitched them all sideways again. "Who touched the console!? The Doctor's gonna kill us!"  
"Nobody did!" Yaz shouted.   
"It just took off on it's own!" Graham responded, almost falling. There was another loud clunk, and then the ground full destabilized and all of them ended up sprawling before the TARDIS stopped.

Yaz was the first up, moving and throwing open the door.   
"Home." she said, softly, staring at the perfectly normal Sheffield street. Ryan found his feet, helping Graham up before he joined her, staring out.   
"She sent us home?" he asked.   
"Well, this is where she picked us up." Graham pointed out, dusting himself off as he peered out the doors behind Yaz, frowning.  
"So she sent us back where she picked us up from." Ryan said, "Makes sense, right?"  
"What? No, it doesn't," Yaz shook her head.  
"Yeah! Like - a save file, right? Last known place? Before we landed - uh - where were we?" he frowned.

"Do you seriously not listen?"  
"I do! But I ain't great at remembering those alien names -"  
"We were in Scotland, you plonker. Mid eighteen hundreds, wasn't it?" Graham sighed and shook his head, but Yaz was just staring out the door.   
"Well. There's not much we can do, so I'm gonna make a cuppa." Graham said, "You comin'?"  
"Yeah, I could do with a cuppa." Ryan agreed, "Still a bit chilly." he pulled on the hoodie at last, draping the towel around his shoulders as he did so. "Yaz?"  
"I'll be there in a minute." Yaz said, softly, shutting the door and stepping away from it. Her eyes went to the console, and the TARDIS hummed as if in acknowledgement.

\--

"Ooh. This is homely." the shakes were starting to get really, really annoying. The cold had sunk into her, down to her bones, and she could feel that numbness. They'd had to help her rather more than the Doctor would've liked, but as they headed lower, it was getting warmer and that was most definitely a good thing.   
It was less good when she found the basement of the building they were using - something that had been abandoned for quite some time, apparently, but it had a rough-hewn stone basement - which had a good half-foot of soupy water in the bottom. Stepping down, the Doctor felt a wave of cold exhaustion, and tried to crush it down. She had to make this brief.

The two guards holding her up had actually been quite gentle, unable to help how sharp their hands were. They were trying to make sure she didn't fall, but the lungfuls of water she'd taken in were more of a problem than anything else. Because she knew what was in it, now, and whilst her head was pounding more and more pointedly. Too many things to do, not enough time! But it didn't matter, right now. Focus. Get them safe, get them off this planet, get them home. The changes they'd made to the water on the surface wouldn't hurt the humans, shouldn't hurt anyone who chanced upon it, but for her, well ... it wasn't important.

Not right now.

"Okay, okay, hold up." she was moved to a seat, sinking into it, rather grateful. The cold was the worst thing, making her fingers stiff. "Come here. What's your name?" she asked the leader, who approached her, taking his hood down again.   
"Name Kness."  
"Good to meet you, Kness." her hand found the melted paper bag, but the sweets within were individually wrapped. Popping the ginger humbug into her mouth, there was a pleasant burn that almost immediately began to ease the headache back. Okay, step one. Then she tugged out her sonic, giving it a good shake, hoping it would behave.

"Show me your translator?" Kness leaned in, and their head tilted back, revealing the slim box tucked into the thick, wiry 'fur' on their neck. "Alright, won't take a second..." she set the Sonic and pushed it up against the side, buzzing, adjusting settings until there was a crackle and -  
"Many thanks to you, Doctor. It is good to communicate again." they chittered, and lowered their head slightly. "We can only apologise for striking at you and your companions."   
"Ah, it's fine. No harm, no foul. Happens all the time. How did you get here?" she leant in slightly, focusing on the answer and the warmth in her mouth, sending comfort to her chilled body. 

"We were flying our ship," the insectoid leader said, sliding off their robe. They looked mostly human in shape, but had a second set of arms tucked neatly in against their side, and were wearing some kind of thick, leather-esque armour with chitinous parts decorating it. "We were a standard scouting mission." they shook their head, a little sadly, "We had gone to investigate a disturbance in the sky. Just beyond the range of our scopes, so we were to get information. When we came too close ..."  
"It pulled you in?" she murmured, frowning, and they nodded in return. "That's how you got here?"  
"We were ejected at a speed faster than the ship could tolerate. We were through the atmosphere without control, and our smoothing system could do only so much -"  
"Oh! Was it an ionic suspension system? That'd be why you didn't cause an atmospheric disturbance on arrival!" she said, clapping her hands together.  
"We emerged from the - mud. There was great damage. Part of the ship crushed entirely. We lost many." she was sure the face was showing great sadness.

"Our mission of study turns to survival. We have stayed here, quiet; unobtrusive. We want to go home." they paused to stare at her, now, and she realised that loose circle had formed again, "We finally have food," they gestured at the water that had flooded the space, "But it is inelegant. The ground here has poisoned us."  
"You drink through your skin." she mused. "Right. I can get you out of here! Just need my ship, which is - in Sheffield. Two hundreds years in the future. Can't really wait it out." she admitted, and shivered violently again. That ache was back in her chest, tightening, and she pushed that away too, because focus was what mattered.

"Can you show me to the remains of your ship? I might be able to cobble something together. How long have you been here?"  
They paused, thinking, "It has been perhaps ... two hundred rotations of this planet?"  
"Almost a year." she said, frowning, "You've done well. That must be why the TARDIS brought us here, but we went in the wrong direction." she laughed, and it came out breathless, "I was trying to plunge you into the ice water to stop you. All I was doing was giving you a meal, huh?"  
"The water does not breed our food well."   
"It does breed it, though, doesn't it?"  
"The meals are sparse. All of us struggle." they said, and looked away, "The weakest among us struggle the most. We must leave here."

"You're right, you must." she stood, bracing an arm, and Kness stepped over, wrapping an arm around her. "Sorry. Don't worry about me, I'm fine. I'll be fine. Once I warm up a bit." she said, as she was led through the basement. There was an excavated passage, muddy and slippery, but she managed through it, glad for her strong boots. Even if her wet socks were squelching in a massively unpleasant way, they finally made their way into a metal shell.

"No power?" She asked, softly.   
"The drive was damaged on collision." Kness said, shaking their head.  
"What drive?" she managed to move on the slightly slanted floor, over to one of the walls, crumpled as it was.   
"Standard ionic warp."  
"Wow, that's some pretty basic tech." she murmured, frowning, tapping on a panel, running slender fingers until - aha! It popped open, revealing the wiring. "Membrane bubble ... oh, elegant, though!" she admitted. "Very elegant. Alright. Give me five minutes. Wait, no. Your shell is broken. You said part of the ship was crushed?"  
They nodded.   
"We have sealed it off."  
"Can it be separated or is it still bonded?" the Doctor's mind was throwing plan after plan at her, siphoning ideas, as she looked at the wires again.

"It's still bonded. We cannot access it unless we dig from outside, and doing so runs great risk." the Doctor frowned. "The mud, it damages us. A sickness spread through several who had been contaminated."  
"Ah. Yeah. Earth Microbes. They're pretty feisty." she murmured. "If you can take me to where it's blocked off?" she shut the panel, and moved with Kness through the ship, taking support again.

The great metal panel had been welded over what was clearly a door, before. The Doctor hummed, putting her stethoscope against it, listening as she tapped.  
"I can separate it from here!" she said, "You bonded this so well, all I have to do is get the resonance right."  
"And the bodies?" Kness' voice was soft and the Doctor felt her face fell.   
"I'll make sure they get the honour they deserve." she said, gently. "But you'll have to leave them."

There was quiet for a few moments, then Kness nodded, slowly.   
"As it must be. I must save the living before I grieve the dead."  
The Doctor reached out, resting a hand on their shoulder, an attempt at comfort.  
"A good attitude." she said, softly, "I'm going to get you home. I promise."


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is getting a bit away from me, too.   
> Any thoughts?  
> I'm also not sure what trigger tags I might need to add.

  
Yaz sunk into the seat, facing the console. It was a little tatty, but comforting none the less. The TARDIS always seemed so alive, and the Doctor had pretty much confirmed that it was true - not in any sense a human could truly understand, but still. The great pillars around her shifted, and she reached out a hand, resting it against one. Always a surprise just how warm they were. And she'd noticed, too... how they changed.

They'd been so warm, gold-orange, the first time they'd come in. When the Doctor was filled with wonder at the sight of her ship. Of course she'd sort of figured it out, that the ship changed every time the Doctor did... and this one was her, wasn't it? Closed off. A core of light, brightness and warmth, but the rest of the space was - angular. Hard and sharp hexagons, and so much darkness. Just the beacon in the middle, to draw her in ... Yaz felt the warmth, too. The actual heat that came from these pillars. Not like something overheating, mechanical, no - the breath of a living thing.  
It was actually comforting.

"How much do you know?" she whispered, softly. There was a hum, and she wasn't sure if it was just something she imagined. How, when they'd come back, after meeting the Master... the light had gotten colder. She'd noticed it more and more, especially when she was the first one up, coming in here, how it tended to blues more than golds. How, when she'd come in the other day, the warmth had blossomed through them, changing the cool colours to this. She swallowed hard. Of course, when they'd come back on the ship after the Doctor had come back from Stormcage, well - she exhaled slowly again.

"What can you tell me?" she whispered again, still touching the pillar. There was a rising hum, and something flickered across the console. Her eyes turned to the light, then up; the pillars were changing. Slowly, like food dye diluting in water, the orange shifted to red; deeper and deeper. It looked like the whole console was lit up in blood. Her eyes widened and she jolted up, trying to figure what that meant.  
"She's angry?" there was a soft click. "Red, red, she's ... she's in danger." Yaz felt her throat tighten. "I already knew she's in danger!" she smacked her hand against, the pillar. The beep that came back was definitely annoyed.

Blue light began to filter in, mixing; the middle looked more purple where they blended, but Yaz frowned. She put her hand back on the pillar.  
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry." she said, gently, "I'm worried about her. So she's in danger." she took a deep breath. "Just gotta figure out how we get back to her."

Someone knocked at the door.

\--

"Right!" she finished buzzing her sonic, slowly but surely, around the edge of the welding; one hand was holding it whilst the other moved her stethosocope around. It wasn't too bad, she could brace just a little, and a task was helping. A task was helping a lot, the ginger still pleasantly numbing her head as she moved around the edges, and now stretching up onto her tiptoes, not wobbling, determined not to wobble. Definitely! Not! Wobbling! And then she reached the point she started and - the ship slid. She felt it, Kness stepping forward to put a hand on her lower back, preventing her from falling. Just a few inches.   
Turning to look at him, she beamed, breathless and flushed despite the pallor of her skin.

"Right. That segment's separated. Now all we have to do is get your engines on, reinforce your hull, get you out of the mud and - send you back home. In the right time zone, which I really do need my TARDIS for but if I can at least get you into the air then we can figure it out from there. I can generate a simple vortex contusion. I'm sure I can! I'm brilliant." she reassured the leader, who looked - as much as she could parse on his face - very much not reassured. "All I have to do is get my TARDIS back. Which, like I said, is two hundred years in the future, but I'm sure I can get it back." she frowned thoughtfully.

"Wait. You've been here almost a year. We saw you in that meeting hall! You must interact with the population, surely?"  
"We did." Kness nodded, "I did. Very cautiously, of course. I could not allow myself to be seen, but until my communicator malfunctioned, we did allow a little contact. To study. To procure materials to make food."   
"Of course." she nodded. "Kness, have you ever sent a letter?" she asked, raising her eyebrows. Judging by the confusion on his face, that would be a no.

"Right. I need you to get me some things. Some paper, a pen - wait. Wait! Pockets!" she began to dig in her pockets, pulling out a tiny little HB pencil, beaming.   
"Oh, love a good pencil. Now ..." she dug deeper, "Okay. No go on the paper. I need you to get me paper, doesn't need to be a lot of paper, and an envelope, a stamp -" she broke off. Kness stepped forward again, automatically reaching out, as she struggled for air. A hand pressed to her chest, and then Kness found themselves taking quite a lot of her weight.   
"Give me - a second - I'm fine -"  
"What is happening to you?" Kness asked, and she heard the fear.   
"Just a little - reaction to some of your food - nothing to worry about." she shivered. Kness moved her, booted feet stumbling and squelching, straightening a piece of fallen furniture for her to sit on.

Resting elbows on knees and dropping her head a little, the Doctor forced herself to take breaths. Couldn't deal with her airwaves closing up, not right now! If she'd only touched it, it wouldn't be too bad but with her having taken in a full lungful, well - it didn't matter. She tugged her sonic out, twisting a setting and pointing it at her chest. Looking at the readout, focusing helped;   
"Don't you worry. I have loads of time." she said, "I'll be fine. Gonna get you moving if it's the last thing I do."  
"I am the only one with a communicator that works." Kness said, softly. "I will go get your supplies. I will send Kendo to help you."   
"Thanks, Kness. Quick as you can." she said, smiling, before Kness was gone. 

A smaller one of the aliens came in, chittering softly; her head might be a fog but the Doctor knew sounds of concern.  
"Nice to meet you, Kendo." she said, gently, "Kness said your communicators were broken. Don't suppose you could bring them to me? I might have a solution." she waved her sonic with a grin that was more confident than she felt.

\--

Knock, knock.

Wow, a knock shouldn't make her feel afraid. But a knock at the TARDIS, well, that was a whole new thing that she'd never dealt with. Slowly finding her feet, the crystals maintaining their strange pink-purple-blue colouration, she moved to the door - opening it just a crack. Wishing she had a chain like old ladies and paranoid people did, even if that was ridiculous. 

And it was - a postman. Looking very confused, as she opened the door wider.

"Erm."  
"You can't believe how excited I am to get to deliver this." the postman, a young, ginger guy with freckles on his face, was clutching a letter that looked - old. Really old.   
"I have no idea what you're talking about, mate, sorry -"  
"No, no, listen. This is for you, right? Big blue police box, outside -" he jerked his fingers at Yaz's block of flats, "Yasmin Khan, Ryan Sinclair, Graham O'Brien. Twenty nineteen. Right here. Wow." he handed it over and Yaz took it, peering at the untidy scrawl on the front.  
"We've been looking after that since eighteen -"  
"Eighteen thirty-nine." she said, softly, and he nodded, clapping his hands.  
"Can I see what's in it?" he asked, "So many of us have wanted to open it... a lot of us thought it was a hoax but I mean, they paid for the storage so -"  
"Erm. Sorry, no. I have to go. But, uh - thank you. Thank you so much." she jolted forward and hugged him, then pulled away and slammed the door in a very disappointed face.

"Graham! Ryan!" Yaz took off down the halls, barging into the kitchen, stopping at the sight of her friends both clutching cups of tea. "We got a letter?"  
"You what?" Graham raised his eyebrows.   
"Letter. Really old letter. As in, the time period we just came from." she said.   
"Well, open it!" Ryan sat up a little, "Is it her? Is it the Doctor?"  
Yaz opened the envelope, sliding it out, staring at it. She sat down slowly, letting the pair move around her to read over her shoulder.  
"Her handwriting's worse than mine." Ryan commented.  
"It's not normally." Yaz said, "I mean, yeah, it's bad but - it's like she's shaking. It doesn't matter." 

"Right, well." Graham pulled away, clearing his throat. "Guess we better get on and do as it says?" he said, uncertainly. Yaz glanced between them. Ryan looked like he'd seen a ghost.  
"What's wrong, Ryan?" she joked, trying to inject the Doctor's confidence into her tone. "Never flown a TARDIS before?"


	6. Chapter 6

  
"Right." the Doctor stood - and her traitorous legs gave way. Kness was there, supporting her up again, and she didn't think she was imagining the look in the insectile face.   
"Take care." he said, softly, "Doctor, what's wrong with you?"  
"Allergic reaction. Kinda. Little bit more complicated than that." she murmured. "You sent the letter?"  
"I did exactly what you said. It took some time to convince them, but it was done."   
"Excellent. Thanks, Kness. You're a good one. Also - I did a bit of fixin' up around here." she said, giving him a bit of a grin. "Wanna show him, Kendo?"  
"Hey, Dad." Kendo stepped in, and the digitized voice emerged.   
"You fixed the communicator!"   
"I had to cannibalize a few of them, sorry about that." the Doctor admitted, "But you got a good half-dozen up and running again." 

Her legs had finally started working again, although breathing was becoming more and more challenging, and she could feel the strain in her neck as each attempt at a gasp made it tighter.   
Plenty of time! She had to just get the ship working, and get it out of the mud, and get it back in the right time zone. She'd started working on at least one of those things, potentially more than one. A panel nearby hung open, and she'd only taken a quick breather.   
"Your daughter is a dab hand, you know that?" she told Kness, with a bright grin, "She's got a great scientific mind. Been extremely helpful." she didn't look but she could feel the proud glance that passed between the pair.

"So, I've had to do what I can with what I have." she told Kness, walking - admittedly a little cautiously, focusing on keeping everything steady. So much easier to force the pain out of the back of her head, when she to get this done before her airways decided to shut off entirely. Over to a panel in the wall, she opened it again, gesturing. "Kendo told me that your engineers -"  
"Perished, yes. Most of them. Kendo had been in training."  
"She's got a great mind. She's gonna do amazing things." the Doctor beamed. "She's been helping me rig this up. So, standard ionic balancer? Very, very easy to turn that into a forcefield. And one of the very good things about generating a forcefield from inside your ship?"

There was an expectant pause, but Kness looked confused.   
"Kendo?" the Doctor murmured.  
"The membrane will be generated inside here and push out. It'll allow our material, anything from home, to stay. But anything else will get pushed away!" she said, with a happy chitter.  
"So all the mud -"  
"Like off a duck's back." the Doctor grinned, "Only side effect is that kinda takes away your cloaking, and we might be in the middle of nowhere but humans will notice the kind of disturbance you leaving the atmosphere will cause. And I can't be on the ship."   
"Because you're not from our planet. The ionic field will push you out." Kness realised.

"Yeah, exactly." the Doctor grimaced. "And that's where your brilliant daughter comes in."  
"The Doctor's helped me. I know how to flip it, to make the shield become -"  
"A suspension system again." Kness and Kendo spoke at the same time, and the Doctor couldn't help but smile.  
"So. One problem sorted. The other problem is, of course, that the ship has no power." 

"The drive is -"  
"Yeah. Damaged. Really, really badly damaged." the Doctor followed Kness into the following room, in the centre of which was a mangled lump of something that looked like metal. "Collapsed in on itself, to prevent everything from exploding. A very, very basic system of protection, like how humanity poured the concrete dome over Chernobyl to prevent the radiation leaking out. Unfortunately, doesn't really deal with the problem on the inside - leave it long enough and things will start leaking out." she murmured. "Of course, if it buckled like this ... I don't have the right things to build this from scratch." she murmured.

Kness hovered, uncertain.  
"We have some supplies."  
"Oh! Supplies!" she hopped up, "I love supplies -" and Kendo caught her as her legs gave way again, a deep, gasping attempt at a breath.   
"Doctor -" she chittered in concern.  
"I'm fine. I'll be fine." she wheezed. "Supplies?"  
"Broken tech. We kept it. I'll bring it." Kness moved off quickly, as Kendo helped the Doctor sit on the floor, each breath feeling tighter and tighter. She reached up, putting a hand on her neck, feeling the strain there.  
"Doctor?" Kendo asked, and it was soft. She blinked up at the crouching face hovering over hers; the mane there was much sparser than her father, but crested higher, almost between her eyes. "What's happening?" 

"Too complicated to explain. The thing that's food to you, it's - very, very toxic to me." the Doctor admitted, "And I got a hell of a dose when I almost drowned. That's as simple as I can make it."   
"We have some medicine -"  
"No. Your medicine will kill me. We're too different." she whispered. There was quiet for a moment, before Kness came back, carrying a large crate, putting it down. The Doctor got onto her knees, starting to dig, pulling various items out, finally starting to beam as she tugged out a long, narrow bar, with one end mangled.   
"Now this I can use."

\--

"Are we really doing this?" Ryan asked, his eyes wide. Yaz had copied the instructions for each of them, and stuck them with a bit of sticky tape to each part of the console where they needed to be. The Doctor's atrocious handwriting had been a little difficult to parse, but Yaz thought she'd done a good enough job.  
"We don't have much choice." Graham said, "If we want her back, right?"  
"We can do this." Yaz was trying to step into the Doctor's shoes. The light had shifted back to a sickly gold, almost white, so they could all see pretty well, which was good. "She'll help us."  
"The Doc?"  
"No. The TARDIS. She'll want to get her back, too, right?" she ignored the fact that Graham and Ryan were looking at her like she was crazy.

They'd run over the control sequence a few times, touching them, not turning or twisting or actually trying to fly. Ryan was worried, of course, that his hands would fuck up at the worst possible moment and he'd make a mistake, but the Doctor did this on her own! Surely they could do it together.  
"Right. Deep breath. Are we ready?" she asked, and there was a nod. They each had two 'segments' to manage, as per the Doctor's instructions. The easy part was first.  
"Here we go."  
She turned a dial two dots to the side. Pressed the button - third on the left, under the blue one - pressed hard with her palm, ran three switches up on her right side -   
"Graham -"  
"On it." she heard his clicks, then - "Ryan -"  
She watched, and was ready before he said her name, hitting one last button.   
"That should be the co ordinates." she said, "Ready?" she breathed.

"Do it." Ryan agreed, as Yaz threw the lever and the TARDIS began to groan and wheeze, throwing them into the time stream.

\--

"Is this going to work?"   
"Wow, oh ye of little faith. Of course it's gonna work! Ninety per cent sure. Seventy five. Well, fifty fifty."   
She ignored the glance father and daughter shared.   
"Right! All I have to do is get into the centre of this mess, extract the drive core, reassemble the metal into it's proper collapsible cage again and route it in. Easy peasy. This -" she waved the stick, before running her sonic against it, "Can generate a spacial bubble! If I mess with it a bit. Already damaged, won't be too hand. Can you pass me that crystal from the box? The cracked one?"  
There was a rustle then it was handed over. The Doctor smacked it on the floor, taking the larger shard, resonating it until there was a low humming noise filling the space - using the sonic on the mangled end until she could slip that inside.

"Easy-peasy." she said, a little breathless. Well, a lot breathless, but that was fine.   
"Back up a little." they immediately began to move up, and she ran the sonic up the side of it. That resonating sound got louder, and she whacked it - with quite a lot of force - on the mangled mess in front of her. For a moment, there was nothing but a loud crackling sound, and alarm ran through the Doctor's chest. Whu-oh. If she'd done that right the crystal should be resonating, amplifying the small field into a bubble she could manipulate but - a spark escaped and she yelped, letting go - as a shell appeared around the lump.   
"Ah!" relief flooded her, despite her confident grin. "Knew it would work." she beamed, "Easy peasy. Yep." a slow exhale. "Now all I have to do is -" she ran her sonic along the bottom edge of the bubble.   
"Ah."

She leant back.   
"Don't suppose you have any way to melt down a bucket of metal?" she asked, raising her eyebrows. "I thought it would separate but uh ..." she looked back. The bubble was starting to look almost - steamy.   
"What have you done?"  
"That's a temporal bubble. Basically, I broke physics a little bit, but don't worry about that. Time inside there is accelerating, degrading away the metal so I can access the energy that's built up again. It'll all be self contained, and then when it releases all I have to do is have the new cage ready to contain it!"   
"Only you don't -"  
"Have a new cage, yeah."

"We'll figure something out." Kness said, "I know what to do. I'll return. I promise." he nodded and left. The Doctor let her shoulders slump a little, taking in the deepest she could manage her breaths, but it was starting to be a real problem. She felt a hand on her shoulder, glancing up - Kendo's eyes focused on the accelerating bubble.  
"How long do we have?"  
"Not entirely sure. Anywhere between and hour and uh - ten minutes." she admitted, grimacing, "Might've made a tiny mistake."  
"What happens if the bubble pops and we don't have a cage ready?"  
"The, uh, the extended energy from the shattered drive will escape. Standard warp core... well. It'll start distorting everything around it, gradually accelerating. We might be able to get away and clear enough space to not get damaged for the few hours until it dissipates, but uh -"  
"The ship would be destroyed."  
"And the soil contaminated, yeah, it's not ideal." the Doctor admitted, feeling the hand tighten on her shoulder. She forced herself up, feeling as Kendo supported her.

"Still got plenty of time in me. Don't worry." she wheezed, hand pressing hard on her chest again. "We're gonna be fine."


	7. Chapter 7

  
Ow. Okay. Respiratory bypass system was working pretty hard, but that was fine, that was what it was for. Whilst she was in breathable air she could use it, and least for a bit. She would be fine. Just gotta push through, get them into orbit, the Fam would fly the TARDIS back and then she just had to generate a spacio-temporal rift to send them back into their own airspace. That was all. Easy-peasy! A little bit risky, of course, generating that kind of a wormhole but they couldn't leave the majority of a spaceship jammed in a hill in the moors of Scotland! That would cause far too many problems to be dealt with.

And she'd promised she'd deal with the dead. Which she intended to keep. 

"Any ideas, Kendo? You're sharp." she asked, looking at the bubble, "I bet you have some good ideas bumping around in the old noggin there, right?" Hopefully? Maybe? She smiled brighter than she felt, because the most important thing here was giving Kendo just that bit of hope. The bug moved away and the Doctor struggled to keep her feet, hearing the rasp as she desperately tried to tug in more air through closing airways. Just a bit longer. Just enough to create a new cage, that she could use the make a new drive from the lingering energy that -

"Oh." she whispered. Kendo was digging through the box of broken tech. "That's the problem! If we can find something to siphon the dangerous energy into, I could use that as the base component to make an entirely new drive! Never mind the old one, take the components and -"  
"How?"  
"What?"   
"How will you do that, Doctor?" the communicators didn't share any emotional estate but the Doctor could've sworn she heard the distress. "You don't have the right equipment for that, and even if you did, how will we get out of here?"  
"Eh! No! None of that, Kendo, don't you dare! You're a _brilliant_ engineer. Your dear old dad is a great leader." she took a few steps - praising her legs for actually holding up for once! Hooray! Before she rested a hand on Kendo's shoulder.

"And we're all gonna die when this core collapses."  
"No! No, we have plenty of time to evacuate." she said, quickly. "Evacuation. Good idea, Kendo. Go through, get everyone out, head towards the city. I'll contain this. Just in case. I'll send a message to you if I fix it. When. _When_ I fix it." that little speech left her breathless, doubling over, wheezing.   
"No."  
"Kendo -"  
"No. You can barely stand. You need my help -"  
"I'm not giving you a choice!" she grabbed ahold of Kendo's shoulder. "Go. Now. Please. Get your people away. Go." there was a moment's hesitation.   
"I promised I'd save you. I stand by it. Go!" 

And finally she turned and fled, and the Doctor heard the chittering rise, letting herself sink to her knees. Taking shaky, wheezing breaths, shivering. She reached up to touch her hair, feeling it was just as soaked as when she'd first come out of the water. Not ideal. Oh, that food in the water - changing it's very basic structure. She'd have to fix that. Once she'd saved everyone. Of course. Because she was the Doctor, and that was what she did.

"Right-o. Something to - save all the energy -" she glanced at the bubble, which seemed to be full of orange sparks. "Just a box of scraps and a sonic." another sharp wheeze. "Running out of time before my airways close again." don't let the grey get too strong. "Easy-peasy."

\--

"Woah! She's bucking like a donkey!" Graham had already fallen once, and Yaz reached over to tug him up again. This was where the instructions got a bit confusing, but she'd found she was actually parsing them pretty well.   
_If the TARDIS feels blue, you need to press the twelfth switch from the left_. And she knew it, pressing the button, and they jolted the other way, a little straighter. Maybe the others weren't taking it quite as well, judging by the shaking and the hiss of steam from Ryan's side that caused a high pitched squeal. Yaz would've found it so much funnier if it wasn't the fact they were currently flying a very incredible spaceship through time and space. The great fingers of crystal were moving in and out around them.

"Trust your instincts!" she shouted over the hissing, "Come on, guys! We can do this!"  
"Did she tell us where we're actually flying to?!" Graham was definitely having trouble with the Doctor's confusing instructions.   
_If everything gets a little too higgery-pokery and you're feeling a little existentially exasperated, you gotta throw your third lever._ But what did that mean? He hesitated before reaching out and hitting the lever - and the TARDIS hummed, and straightened more.  
"That's it! That's it, come on!" Yaz threw a few more switches, letting some kind of instinct drive her, looking at the instructions again. "We're doing it."

Ryan laughed, breathless.   
"Yeah. We are. Oh, man, we're flyin' the TARDIS! This is awesome - woah!" they were all thrown hard as the TARDIS tilted to the left.   
"Graham!" Yaz cried out, seeing him struggle to keep a grip.  
"It's my fault! I missed a stage!" Ryan whacked a few more buttons, and now they felt the TARDIS spinning, wildly, threatening to throw them all. Yaz looked at her instructions again, catching her breath as she hung on.   
_No matter what - don't panic!_ she read that line again, _If in doubt, call for help._

The telephone! She reached across for it, struggling, her elbow hitting a screen and sending that swinging - the handset slid through her fingertips. It rattled across the console.   
"No! No, no, don't you dare, you bloody -" it hit buttons, beeping, and landed against a lever. Yaz lunged for it but too slow and the lever pulled - and they evened out again.  
There was an immense clunk, and Ryan leant across the throw the big lever, panting as badly as the rest of them.

For a moment, they breathed.

Ryan whooped, punching the air.   
"We did it! We ain't dead! Oh, my days, we just flew the TARDIS!" he broke into laughter as Yaz checked Graham was okay, getting up herself. She felt a same breathless excitement.   
"Yeah. Let's see where we are." she said, moving over to the doorway, "And hope we're in the right place."

\--

Oh. This hurt. This was hurting a lot. Each attempt at a breath, deep or shallow, gave her next to no oxygen. The tightening in her throat was getting worse, more and more painful. The desparate need for a drink of water laying on her, but there was no safe water here, and the grey edges of her vision were definitely a moment of concern. But she had to find something, anything that would work - she knocked the scraps over, desperate hands scrabbling.  
"Something, anything - oh!" she found the broken shards of crystal from before, tugging those in close, "Not a big enough space to contain that much energy," she murmured, "Even if I increase the resonance..." 

A quick moment to press a hand to her chest. Hearts racing, not surprising with the stress of the situation but - there's a hissing behind her.  
"Not enough time." she gasped, grabbing the crystals and what looked to be the main bulk of a display screen, with a large crack across it. Screwdriver in trembling hands. She had a task, and goddamnit she wasn't going to let a bit of issue breathing stop her. Running the screwdriver along the edge, that hissing was getting louder as she dug inside and - jackpot. Now she just had to build.

Hands worked fast, ignoring the desperate, tight pain in her chest. A few screws fell on the floor and she decided against trying to rescue them, not important - the circuitboard, the sonic, then the crystals, the chunk of sillicon that she'd found inside and a nice handful of wires -   
"Easy does it." she slotted them together. There was a loud hiss, her eyes turning - the bubble split.   
Golden light poured fourth as she put her hand on the machine and slid it towards the outflowing of energy. There was a low, powering up hum, and then the crystals began to turn from clear to gold. Nothing warped. The last, degraded pieces of metal fell away and the Doctor laughed.

A bad idea, perhaps.   
"Always knew - I could do it -" she gasped, with difficulty. "Easy-peasy. Okay. Now the shell."  
"Doctor!" her head jolted up, turning - kneeling on the floor, one arm around her ribs.   
"Kness?" she mumbled. He appeared, clutching what looked like a heavy chest.   
"What have you created?" he crouched next to her. "Doctor. You are suffering."  
"It's fine." she gasped. "Just a little - hard to breathe, but -"  
"I brought metal."   
"Oh, you are excellent. You are very excellent." she whispered. "Think you can make a cage?"  
"Already done. We found the casting materials."   
"Brilliant." she tried to push up and it was too much, slumping forward. Kness caught her.   
"Easy, Doctor. Easy. Thank you."

"I gotta - plumb in the new containment unit." oh, that grey was getting too much, flooding her senses, lungs were screaming once more and she pressed a hand to her throat. Each wheezing rasp got louder, but no air was getting through.   
She'd run out of time.


	8. Chapter 8

  
_It's very important not to panic._  
She was a child. Standing, lost. Afraid. So very afraid. She didn't understand why she was here. Crying out, again and again. Until there was a noise, so loud, so hot, and she screamed.  
She screamed for her mother.  
 _Panicking will only make your body use up the oxygen faster and force the regeneration quicker. And I'm quite fond of this face. Don't want to lose it yet._

Mother stood over her. She was smiling, she was so kind and gentle. And yet she was holding something that made her so - so scared.   
She'd promised it wouldn't hurt, but mother lied.  
 _Oh, mother lied every tme._  
Are you proud of me?  
She needed to eat. Her body burned, in agony, all golden light and energy, fizzing and crackling and popping inside. Something she could do. Make herself anew.  
It never really stopped hurting.  
She was given fruit, fresh and crisp, sweet, and yet it tasted like mush in her mouth. It made her feel so sick but she ate it anyway.  
 _Mother, please tell me you're proud of me -_

A jolt. Feeling in her fingers. Warmth chasing cold.  
Air, in screaming lungs.   
Eyes, taking in two terrified insect faces leaning over hers.  
Sitting bolt upright.  
Relieved chittering.  
Everything hurt.

"What happened?" she wheezed. Not out of the woods yet. Hearts erratic, jumping painfully. A little more space in her throat, a little more time.  
"Took a risk." Kendo held up the spent tube. "Adreneline shot. Figured it would work."  
"Smart lass! Good thinking. Got me plenty more time. Another hour, at least, and an hour is worth a lot when you're me!" she tried to get up too fast and her legs pitched. Still not good.  
"Tell me what to do, Doctor."   
And she beamed.   
"We're gonna get this new energy containment device plumbed in, install the new collapse cage, then fix your warp drive. Then we're getting you out of here, and home." she promised. 

"And you?"  
"Oh, don't worry. I have transport coming." she told Kness. "But you're gonna have to do exactly what I say. Do you trust me?"  
They nodded, and the Doctor felt a warmth that had nothing to do with the irregular thunking of her hearts.

\--

"This - looks like where we were. Right?" she stepped out into the open air, feeling the chill in it.   
"Yeah." Ryan agreed. "Look." he pointed, and she followed his gaze, "That's the pond the Doctor fell in, right?"   
"So we're, what, a couple hours later? Do you think? The sun was just going down, and now it's set."   
"Only just, sky's still all pink."  
"Either that or it's dawn."   
The ground underneath them began to rumble, and the fam looked down in alarm.   
"That's not good, right?" Ryan said, nervously.  
"Definitely not good." Yaz agreed. "TARDIS? Or other direction?" she whispered.  
"TARDIS." Graham said, voice melding with Ryan's, "Other way." there was a pause, and the ground trembled violently again.   
"Right, you stay in the TARDIS. Me and Ryan are going this way." Yaz grabbed Ryan's hand and took off. Graham hesitated before ducking back inside the stable TARDIS, as the ground was shaking with a louder and louder rumbling. 

"Wait, I know that building!" Ryan pointed at it, half hidden in the trees, "We ran past it on the way here, it's were those other monk-dudes came out of!"  
"You're right." Yaz took off towards it, her better balance matching her with Ryan's lankier legs. They reached the building, a dank smell of old, murky water and something else weird reaching her. Tugging her phone out, she turned on the torch, moving down through a drop -   
"Eugh. It's full of water." there was another rumble, and Ryan dropped next to her. "Come on." splashing through the ankle deep murk, Yaz focused on the rumbles, aware they were heading back towards where the TARDIS was.

The space opened out as she peered around. Flashing her torch, but now there was a low level light source. The smell of the mucky water was getting more and more unpleasant, and the rumbles were sending her staggering.   
"Doctor! Doctor?" she called, peering around. "Doctor! We're back! Are you here?" she kept sweeping the beam. The place looked like it had been vacated in a desperate rush, in fact, random items scattered around the icy cold water that was around their ankles the whole way through.  
"Is this place flooding?" Ryan asked.  
"Dunno. Water seems stagnant, though." Yaz pointed out, "It's not rising." the rumbles were more intense. A dull roar reached their ears, now, hanging onto one another to stay upright.

And then a slim figure in a grey coat came barrelling out of nowhere, flinging herelf into their arms. Yaz cried out in surprise and delight, almost dropping her phone as she wrapped her arms around the Doctor. And then realised this might not be a hug, judging by the racing pulse she could feel.   
"Hi, fam! Got my letter?" she asked, so bright, and Yaz heard that wheeze in her tone.  
"Doctor, are you okay?"  
"Peachy! But I gotta get to the TARDIS - like, five minutes ago, if I'm being honest, so where is she?"  
"We parked her on top." Ryan supplied.  
"On - on top?"  
"Yeah, on top of that hilly bit."   
"Oh. Oh, that not ideal."

"Why's that not ideal?"  
"Well, there's kinda a spaceship under it. About to take off. And I need to be in the TARDIS to generate a hole in space-time to pilot it through, safely, because it's been thrown back here when it's actually from way after your time." she admitted, all in a rush.   
They all took a breath. Except the Doctor, Yaz noticed.  
"Well, we better get a shift on." Ryan agreed, before they were taking off - the Doctor couldn't run. Yaz took one side, Ryan the other, sharing a brief, wide-eyed glance in the gloom. 

The ladder presented another problem. Ryan insisted the Doctor went first. It was good he had - she was halfway up when her grip failed. He only just managed to support her, gasping as she was.   
"Doctor?"   
"S'fine." she managed to get out. "Thanks for the lift. Oof." and she managed to clamber out. 

It took longer, far longer than they wanted it to. They finally threw the door open, supporting her between them; the pillars flushed a deep red, immediately.  
"Yes, I know." Yaz moved as the Doctor spoke, releasing her. She almost fell on the console.   
"Do me a favour, Yaz, can you nip to the medbay and grab me - third drawer - on the left -" she broke off again, gasping like she was choking, still managing to press buttons and flick levers. "Little blue packet, three pills in it. And some water. Please?" 

"Yeah - yeah, of course." Yaz shot a glance at Ryan as the TARDIS moved, whirring and thrumming. She fled the room at speed, unable to shake the noises of the Doctor's desperate wheezes from her mind and hoping, whatever was happening, that the Doctor would survive whatever was stopping her breathing.


	9. Chapter 9

  
She was flying. Her head was spinning badly and the red lighting in the TARDIS wasn't helping much but instinct was taking over and she was flying. Her respiratory bypass system was working overtime and the jankiness of her hearts really wasn't helping. She stumbled, gripping the side of the TARDIS, half-falling and tugging a lever as she did. Hands were on her side, her back, helping her up - Ryan's alarmed face swinging into view. 

Then there was Yaz, wonderful Yaz, with a glass of water and the pills, doing her best not to spill them when the TARDIS lurched. She reached out, taking one into her hand and the water. Swallowing it hurt, her narrowed throat not wanting to accept it but she made herself. Almost immediately there was another flourish of warmth, her throat opening up - it was a temporary measure. The more permanent measures would have to wait.  
"What was that?" Ryan asked, as the Doctor chugged the last of the water and shoved the glass at Yaz, throwing a few more switches to even the TARDIS out.   
"Kinda like an adreneline shot. Or an allergy pill." she said, with a grin, "Open up the airways. Clean sinuses!" she said, laying almost flat to hit a button on the other side.

"So you're not gonna explain why you keep almost passing out on us?"  
"Honestly, Ryan! Is it the right time? Get over here -" he moved, "Keep a hand on this button, do not let go until I say, do you understand?"  
"Yeah - yeah, got it."  
"Yaz!"  
"I'm here -"   
"Hold this lever. If we go left, you pull it left, right, go right, you get it?"   
"Yeah, of course." she said, "But what are you -"  
"Graham!"   
"Yeah?"   
"Stand here."   
"Okay, do you need me to hold anything or press anything or - "  
"Um, no. No, you're fine, just stand there. I'm about to upset her." she knelt and pulled the grille out where Graham had been standing, hopping inside. The TARDIS hummed and tilted, Yaz carefully moving the lever she held to balance the TARDIS.

"What are you doin', Doc?" Graham finally demanded.  
"I have to turn off a safety circuit. Just to allow me to project a rip in space-time. Don't worry, I'll fix it!"   
"Doctor -" she poked her head out again. On the screen, projected, was the image of a lop-sided ship, shaped vaguely like a flat egg, out of the mud; chunks of dirt sliding off a thin, electrical-looking shell around it.   
"That's my girl!" the Doctor laughed, "Up in the air. Any second now -" there was a loud hum and the shield suddenly - vibrated, then vanished. "Right." she tugged herself out of the hole and pushed Graham aside, dancing around the console.   
"Ryan, let go!" they shot up, although none of them would see it, out through the atmosphere. The ship followed the little blue box, picking up speed.

"Okay, Graham! Two hands, here please -" she gestured. He followed, "Yaz!" they instructions were shouted as she went back into the home, finding the metal panel she'd been looking for. There it was - a few removed wires, with a tug and a shower of sparks - she'd deal with that later! The TARDIS rumbled and let out a noise that was almost - pained.  
"Okay, here we go -" she hoisted herself out again, and Yaz noticed the stress of her breathing, the tightening of the muscles in her chest and neck, showing the collarbone in sharp relief.

"Just gonna -" her fingertips tapped rapidly at the keyboard and they all backed up now as the Doctor whirlwinded, almost dancing around the console. There was a shudder, and a screeching alarm.  
"TARDIS doesn't like it much. Sorry, old girl. Just gotta make sure we're gonna spit them out in the right place..." more typing, and then she threw some switches, and up on the monitor - they saw it. An awful, ragged-edged rip, a wormhole - and the ship. Speeding towards it, glowing just slightly, and then - passing through. The TARDIS wobbled, violently, and let out a deep groaning noise.

"We're fixing it, don't worry!" the Doctor shouted, moving again. She slumped, and Yaz heard the strained gasp, before - one more flick. The TARDIS dropped, all of them feeling weightless for a second, and on the screen the rip had knitted back together.   
"All fixed. All good." she beamed at them. "On their way home. With an excellent engineer on board, too. Well done, fam. Think you all deserve a cuppa."   
Ryan clapped her on the shoulder. Graham let out a shaky chuckle. 

Yaz stepped forward.

And the Doctor's legs gave way, eyes rolling back in her head, giving in as she collapsed into Yaz's arms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There she go...   
> next chapter is the last one.


	10. Chapter 10

  
"Jesus, she's cold." she whispered. The icy feeling of her skin had sent a bolt of fear through Yaz. The Doctor's chest was twitching but she clearly wasn't breathing.   
"What do I do? CPR?" she whispered, shaking in fear. She could feel the staccato mis-beating of two hearts under her hands, sinking to the floor with the Doctor.  
"You have to try something!" Graham said, crouching on one side as Ryan knelt on the other, eyes wide with fear. 

"I don't know how you get someone breathing again!" she said, alarmed. The TARDIS was beeping steadily louder. "Hold on, hold on..." she leant down, remembering the CPR training yet again, reminded of earlier - she could feel the Doctor's hearts getting weaker under her hands. "Come on, come on -" she blew air into the Doctor's mouth, hoping -   
"She said she took an allergy pill, right?" Ryan said, eyes wide and afraid, "What was she allergic too?"   
Yaz could feel the tears running down her face, trying again. The Doctor's heartbeats were getting fainter - more erratic.   
"Don't you dare die on us -" she hissed, desperately, hands shaking, "Don't you dare, Doctor."

"She can't breathe ..." Graham murmured, "Shit -" and he dashed out of the space, moving with shocking speed - returning a moment later. He was holding something orange in his hands - an epi-pen. "I knew I'd seen one of these in the medbay last time we were in there -" he knelt down and expertly used it. Yaz moved away, tears still running down her face - and the Doctor jolted. She gasped, desperately drawing in air, as adreneline rushed through her system for the second time that day. A slight cough, and she smacked her chest with one hand.  
"Oh, thank god. Thank god." Yaz whispered, fuzzy hazel eyes looking up at her. 

"Hey." she wheezed, and there was a twist. The Doctor clearly wasn't out of the woods yet. "Did you stab me?"   
"Graham did. Come on." she slid an arm around the Doctor's shoulders, Graham taking the other side, "You stopped breathing."  
"I'm having an - allergic reaction -"  
"What to?" she asked, feeling a low fear.   
"What those creatures eat. The pond was full of it." she gasped, raggedly.  
"Oh, no. I fell in there too, am I gonna - "  
"Not humans." she mumbled. "Won't hurt you. Just me." she gave him a grin.

"You need to tell us what's happening." Yaz said, sharply.   
"It's closing my airways." she admitted, raspily, "My body's trying to fight it off and it's very, very good at that -" she paused to breathe wheezily, struggling to keep moving and Yaz was hit with the fact something was wrong. Something more than that, something she couldn't figure out - "- but it's still not good enough. I took a big dose in the water."  
"So how do we fix you?" Yaz asked, urgently, "Is this like before, do you need to burn it off or -"  
"It's not a drug." the Doctor wheezed back as they got to the medbay and moved her onto the bed. Yaz noticed that her hair still seemed to be wet, even though most of her clothes had at least partially dried. 

"How do we fix this?" she asked, urgently.   
"Gotta get you out of that wet coat -" Graham helped to do so, sliding it off the Doctor's shoulders, revealing her shirt was still mostly soaked and the shivering was worse than it had looked.   
The TARDIS was still beeping, the sound echoing around the space. The Doctor curled in a little and Yaz moved in, resting a hand on her chest to keep her up - and realising the beat there really sounded wrong.  
"One of your hearts has stopped." she breathed.  
"Yeah. I noticed." the Doctor gave her a shaky grin, "That's an easy fix." she laughed, and it came out in a sharp rasp. "Don't worry about that right now."  
"Don't worry ab-?!"  
"Yaz. I need you to focus, and I need you to help me." the Doctor reached out, icy hands gripping Yaz's.

"Okay." she forced herself to focus, hearing the urgency.  
"Graham. Go to the Kitchen. I need you to grab all of the garlic bulbs from the cupboard and a jar of honey."  
"Got it." he left in a rush.   
"Ryan?" she broke off with a wheeze, leaning heavily against Yaz, forcing in desperate breaths. He stepped in close as Yaz helped keep her up.   
"I'm here, Doctor." he said, gently, and she smiled, even if it was shaky.  
"Third drawer on the left," she pointed vaguely, "There's a mortar and pestle in there, you need to get that, and a syringe."   
"Woah, what?"  
"They're - over there somewhere. Yaz." she smiled, "You're gonna have to do the administration, you have the steadiest hands. Two whole garlics, smash them together, there's ethanol on the other workbench. Spoonful of the honey," she was breathing hard again. "In - in the second - on the -"   
"It's okay. It's okay." Yaz held her more steadily as she struggled in air. 

"There's a - sorta green blister pod. Asnephasolifphene." she mumbled, "You're gonna have to put that in there. Just mix it together." she forced another breath. Yaz hesitated before moving away, finding it - Graham returned and Ryan was already getting to work with the mortar. Yaz tried to ignore how much her breathing was straining as they got to work, Graham hovering awkwardly now.   
"Graham." she wheezed. "Can you go back to the kitchen and find - there's a bottle labelled M'hen Vinegar in one of the cupboards. Blue, big sorta ... eagle-thing on the bottle?"  
"Sure thing, Doc." he said, leaving again. 

They had the mix mostly made now, the awful smell of the medicine she added mixing in the air. Yaz was surprised by how well it came together, hands shaking as she drew it into the syringe and went back to the Doctor. She had slumped further forward, still shivering.   
"I think we did it right -" The Doctor took it and carefully held it up to the light, still struggling to breathe, eyes a little foggy. She nodded, and handed it over.   
"You're gonna have to be strong, Yaz." she said, softly. "This is gonna look really, really bad, but trust me." she whispered. "I'm gonna need to be on the floor."

Yaz and Ryan helped her down, to said floor, clearing some space.   
"There's quite a - high chance - I'll have a seizure. I'll be unconscious. When I stop moving, you need to restart my heart." she stopped, taking the deepest breaths she could manage.   
"Doctor, I don't know -" she gripped Yaz's wrist, firmly now, staring forcedly into her eyes.   
"You can do this. I believe in you." she whispered. "You've been through far worse."

Yaz took a moment to breathe, then nodded, before she made the injection as swiftly and carefully as she could into the Doctor's arm. It didn't take long; she slumped onto the floor, and Yaz wished she'd thought to put something soft down.  
"Quick, where's her coat?" she put the needle aside as Ryan passed her the damp fabric. She folded it and tucked it around the Doctor's head, watching her face closely; the time lord hadn't been lying. She began to jerk, body seizing, making awful noises. Yaz covered her mouth, Ryan moving to put a hand around her shoulders comfortingly. 

Finally, she stopped. It felt like hours had gone by but Yaz didn't feel like checking a clock right now. She had to restart the Doctor's heart.  
Training. She knew how to do this.  
"Third time lucky on the CPR?" she whispered, before she got started. Taking just a second, she felt where on the Doctor's chest the beating heart was before moving to the other side. The beat of 'staying alive' played in her head from that stupid advert as she got to work. Enough force that she was sure the Doctor's ribs should be broken but - 

She felt it. The thready beat, getting stronger, then fell back. Gasping, almost choking on the tears as Ryan caught her. The Doctor's mouth moved before her eyes opened, into a smile as she took in a deep, if shaky breath.  
"I really do like having functioning lungs." she rasped. "And both hearts. Oof. Thanks Yaz."  
"Don't you ever -" Yaz thumped her on the shoulder as she sat up, before tugging the Doctor into a tight hug, "- _Ever_ do that to me again." she whispered, resting her hand on the Doctor's shoulder. Hazel eyes shut Ryan a confused look, and he shrugged, half sympathetic and half on Yaz's side.

"Right. Enough hugs." she said, as Yaz helped her up, "I have to do some very clever piloting now to try to get a bunch of alien bug engineers off a crashing ship without anyone noticing, check Kendo and Kness got home alright and drop the lot of them off, not to mention removing a bunch of alien metal and alien bugs from a moor in Scotland." she said, beaming, and didn't object when Yaz rested a hand on her arm, helping add just a touch of support. "You guys wanna help?"

"Yeah, I guess so -" Ryan's comment was interrupted by the arrival of a dishevelled Graham.   
"Doc, I looked everywhere but I couldn't find -"  
"Oh, it's okay. Don't have any of it, really. Just wanted to get rid of you. Sorry. Graham." the Doctor grinned, despite her words, as he spluttered. "Thought you might distract Yaz whilst she was giving me CPR. Really good at CPR, our Yaz." she clapped Yaz on the shoulder, before the leading the way back to the console room.   
"Lots to do." she said, clicking a few dials over, "You guys don't mind, do you?"   
And she threw the lever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And ... we're done. I hope you guys enjoyed this fic I wrote absolutely flippin' blind.
> 
> I am in fact taking prompts, incidentally, so feel free to message me or at my RP tumblr, whomuses!


	11. Chapter 11

Just a bonus artwork - it's Kness!


End file.
